The use of plane trees in London

Amenity and ornamental uses

The plane tree in England has primarily been used as a large
amenity and ornamental tree. In Greater London it is a regular and
common component of most larger urban parks and many streets. It is
also often used in many other forms of landscaping where a large
tree is needed. It is similarly used as an urban parkland and
street tree in cities throughout the temperate regions. It is
useful in conditions where a tough and adaptable tree is needed,
even if its life there is going to be limited.

Plane trees in St. James' Park

As an ornamental tree it can provide great size and longevity
where these are needed. Other useful features include a moderate
shade that is sufficient to allow grass or other plants to grow
below it, tolerance of pollution, and tolerance of difficult soil
conditions. It also tolerates pruning, including bad pruning. For
this reason it is planted in places for which it will grow too big,
on the basis that as it responds well to pruning, it can be so
dealt with in maturity.

Apart from size and longevity, some other attractive
characteristics are;

its large and prominent leaves,

its dappled bark, with colour changes through the season as
bark is shed,

an attractive winter crown, particularly in its branch pattern,
(though the crowns of some forms may not be considered
attractive).

its pendant fruit which lasts through the winter on the
tree.

There are some disadvantages as well for an ornamental tree;

its enormous ultimate size which may be too large for some
locations,

its large and bulky leaves, which can clog drains. Leaves piled
on lawns can kill them off if not cleared over winter,

health effects from the hairs and down shed by leaves and
fruit

on shrinking clay soils which are common in London, the trees
can cause considerable problems for building foundations due to the
uptake of water.

Trees are rarely selected for their final shape, since this can
take a long time to be fully visible, and does not matter in any
case if the tree is likely to be lopped or removed before maturity.
But it does matter for parkland trees. It is unfortunate that so
many of London's trees are of the clones (such as Pyramidalis) that
have turned out to have a poor shape. Some of the newer varieties,
including those selected in the US, have not been around long
enough for their final shapes to be known.

Parkland

The plane has been used in many of London's older parks to form
perimeter tree belts. They are also often found as avenues
alongside the carriage roads that ran through these early and
Victorian parks. Good examples of these plane tree lined carriage
roads can be seen on the south and eastern side of Hyde Park (the
eastern carriage road is now part of Park Lane), and at Victoria
Park in Bow. This concept has been copied in many of London's newer
suburban parks. Sometimes, as in Gladstone Park (Dollis Hill),
plane trees have been used to form informal avenues along the
winding roads that run through the park. Screens and shelterbelts
of plane trees on the margins of parkland, playing fields, and
other open spaces, are also fairly common, as will be noticed in
many longer rail journeys across London.

Cemeteries

Plane trees shading tombstones at Chingford Mount Cemetery.

Trees have also been used in some cemeteries. At Kensal Green
Cemetery, Oriental planes have been used, both for boundary
planting and elsewhere. It is possible at this cemetery that they
were also planted in formal avenues, but if so, then some aspects
of the original design have been lost. Most other cemeteries used
fewer planes, though the influence of the cemetery arboretum
concept persisted, ensuring that a wide variety of trees would
often be planted, and thus often some plane trees. The large City
of London Cemetery at Wanstead is notable, as it has substantial
areas planted primarily with these trees. But this collection is
not especially varied.

London squares and gardens

The squares of central London are another location type where
planes have been heavily used, and because of their age, they
provide another significant population of mature trees. Some of
these squares are private, but the trees are generally large enough
and imposing enough to dominate the surrounding streets. Many of
the squares were laid out as gardens, and it is unlikely that these
trees were planted in the expectation of their present size.
However they are now a major component of these squares and gardens
and few would be able to consider these squares without these trees
to give them structure.

Most private squares are now rather more densely planted with
shrubs than the public ones, which shows that the trees do not
necessarily detract from other growth. Examples of public gardens
with similarly dense plantings of both plane trees and shrubs can
be found, such as the gardens by the Embankment near Charing Cross
station.

Riverside plantings

Plantings by the Thames are another familiar feature to most
Londoners. There are many established plantings by the river, and
there are some newer plantings such as those by the South Bank and
the Tate Modern Gallery. However, rather more prominent are the
trees that line most of the north bank Embankment from the City to
Chelsea.

Plane trees are also found in many other riverside settings,
including Barnes, Richmond and further upstream. This latter
section includes some of the largest specimens in London, at or
near Petersham. This is significant, since the tree's preferred
growing environment is moist river valleys. Many of the other
largest trees are similarly also beside other watercourses, notably
the Wandle (such as at Morden Hall Park and Ravensbury Park), and
sometimes its smaller tributary streams, such as the one by the
Ecology Centre at Carshalton.

Street trees

A residential road lined with
pollarded planes (winter)

The plane is also used as a street tree, especially in roads
that were planted through the earlier 20th century, including inner
and suburban London. The majority of these trees have been treated
since by pollard pruning to control their size. This leaves a
rather ungainly looking specimen in winter, but provides a managed
dense crown through the summer. Such trees are widespread through
Greater London, sometimes mixed with lime trees, which may also be
treated similarly. Sometimes, in traffic islands or other
situations where their size causes no problems, unpruned trees can
be found. In some places, there is an attempt made to keep a more
naturalistic shape to the tree by careful pruning. Examples of the
latter can be seen along Whitehall, and Charing Cross Road, north
of Trafalgar Square.

In many places, these trees have caused building subsidence
problems, due to their proximity to houses, so they are not
replaced or removed. However, especially where there is more space,
there are new trees being planted.

Timber

The timber is called variously lacewood, lacewood plane, plane,
buttonwood or sycamore. It has a characteristic attractive lacy
appearance which is sought after for some furniture. It is not
longlasting out of doors. However, it has moderate strength and
hardness, and it is quite suitable for indoor furniture and joinery
use. In this use, it is stable and it can take a fine finish and
polish.

The timber is neither widely available nor widely used, but a
certain amount of wood does enter the timber trade from the widely
planted European ornamental tree stock. Some of the available
timber is used for veneering. Plane trees are sometimes also grown
specifically as a forestry crop for joinery and veneering timber,
especially Platanus occidentalis in the USA.

Other uses

The tree can be used as a pleached tree, though this is not
common in Britain, where traditionally lime, beech and
hornbeam trees were the most commonly used.

The sugary sap has been tapped from the occidental plane and
used for human consumption in North America.

A number of medicinal uses are known in folk medicine for the
plane trees. These include some medicinal preparations made from
the leaves and the bark of the oriental plane. A range of external
and internal medicinal uses have been described for preparations
made from the bark of the occidental plane.

Dyes have been prepared from the roots and stems of oriental
plane in Kashmir.

In recent years the occidental plane has been used as a biomass
crop in the United States because of its high rate of growth in good soil
conditions.

Prunings from pollarded planes make excellent bean sticks and
frameworks for climbing plants. Two and three year old growth is
most useful.